Fashioning Identity: Material Culture, Cultural Memory, and Self-Representation in Contemporary Indigenous Fashion

Abstract

Contemporary Indigenous fashion raises a question that cultural motifs alone cannot answer: who decides what clothing means? This article looks at how Indigenous designers use fashion to express belonging, renew traditions, and shape how they are seen in public. It focuses on Jamie Okuma’s Adaptation II, Bethany Yellowtail’s Indigenous Women Rise scarf, and pieces from Virgil Ortiz’s Revolt Rising collection, using museum records and public statements. The study combines close reading of documents with analysis of garments, their titles, and their circulation. Stuart Hall’s ideas about cultural identity and Jolene Rickard’s work on sovereignty help frame the discussion. The main argument is that fashion expresses identity through how things are made, credited, worn, and understood, not through a fixed set of Indigenous symbols. The examples show three possibilities: changing materials can highlight creative authorship; coordinated dress can support group presence; and wearable stories can link cultural memory to imagined futures. However, markets and consumer views still shape these outcomes. The research article compares how tradition becomes visible without requiring everything to look the same. It also separates self-representation from the unproven idea that visibility always leads to community empowerment.